JOIN USChandrayaan-2: One step from leaving Earth orbit
India's most ambitious Moon mission, Chandrayaan-2 is now only a step away from leaving the Earth's orbit. On Friday afternoon, the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) successfully completed the spacecraft's fourth orbit-raising maneouvre.
The maneouvre was performed at 3.27 pm as planned, Isro announced. This was achieved by using the Mission's onboard propulsion system for a firing duration of 646 seconds. “The orbit achieved is 277 x 89,472 km. All spacecraft parameters are normal,” the space agency declared.
The fifth and final orbit-raising maneouvre of the Mission has been scheduled for August 6, between 2.30 pm and 3.30 pm. Once this orbit is reached, the spacecraft will be all set to enter a week-long Lunar Transfer Trajectory heading to the lunar orbit.
Launched from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota on July 22, Chandrayaan-2 is expected to enter the Moon's orbit on August 20. Once the spacecraft reaches the lunar orbit of 100 x 100 km, the Lander Vikram will separate from the Orbiter for an unprecedented soft-landing operation.
After what Isro chairman K Sivan described as “Fifteen minutes of terror,” the Lander will attempt to find a flat surface to make a soft landing on the Moon's South Pole on September 7. Although the United States, the erstwhile Soviet Union and China have landed their spacecraft, none have targeted the South Pole.
Here's why Isro finds the lunar South Pole particularly interesting: “The lunar surface area here that remains in shadow is much larger than that at the North Pole. There is a possibility of the presence of water in permanently shadowed areas around it.”
The space agency also wants to probe the craters here. “These are cold traps and contain a fossil record of the early Solar System.” Probing deeper for water, the presence of which was first indicated by Chandrayaan-1 in 2008, is one of the Rs 978 crore Mission's primary objectives.
But the success of these operations will depend a lot on the Rover, Pragyan, designed to roll out of the Lander. A six-wheeled robotic vehicle, the 27-kg Rover can travel up to 500 metres, leveraging solar energy for its functioning.
It can generate up to 50 watts. However, its communication will be limited only till the Lander, and will last for a single lunar day, equivalent to 14 Earth days. But whatever valuable inputs it gathers during this short span will be immensely valuable. The data will be relayed via the Lander and Orbiter to the Indian Deep Space Network (IDSN) based on Byalalu near Bengaluru.